Two Girls Shot Dead in Similar Circumstances; Two Very Different Sentences

In May 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, two shootings in Miami took place under very similar circumstances.

The two incidents occurred only five miles and six days apart, but the same courthouse gave the suspects extremely different sentences.

In both instances, a teenage girl was killed by a teenage boy and the Miami-Dade circuit court ruled that the killings were manslaughter. But one boy got years in jail, while the other only got weeks.

Thalys Oliveira, 19, claimed he didn't know his gun was loaded when he pointed it at Arya Gray's head and pulled the trigger at his apartment on May 12, 2020. He was 17 at the time and Gray, a Miami Beach Senior High School Student, was only 15.

Gray's sister Sasha saw her fall and called 911 before she was pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

In February, Miami-Dade circuit court sentenced Oliveira to 11 years in prison and five years of probation.

As Oliveira was under the age of 21 at the time of the shooting, his defense attorney was hoping that the judge would sentence him to two years in prison, followed by time in a bootcamp program and four years of probation. But he was tried as an adult. In Florida, manslaughter is a second-degree crime that is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and 15 years of probation.

Following the verdict, Gray wrote on social media: "Justice has been served."

Six days after Gray's shooting, a similar incident took place when Michael McGowan, who was then 17, opened fire at a party at an AirBnB in Miami at around 8:30 p.m. He killed Giselle Rengifo, who police found on the floor with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head.

McGowan was arrested on one count of first degree manslaughter with a deadly weapon. He spent a month in a juvenile facility before his case was transferred to an adult court, and he was released with a GPS ankle monitor and didn't have to post bail, court documents show.

The case dragged through the justice system for another two years. In Miami-Dade circuit on last week, McGowan was finally sentenced to several weeks of jail followed by bootcamp, after pleading guilty to the shooting of Rengifo.

His manslaughter sentence stunned prosecutors and Renifo's family, who were livid. Emotions ran high. Manslaughter in Florida as an adult could have carried 30 years. Instead, McGowan was sentenced to 364 days in Dade County Jail, which was adjusted to time already served, meaning that McGowan will be released sometime next month, in October 2022.

The judge justified the sentence as he was under 21 at the time of the shooting, had a lack of criminal history and they believed it was an accident.

'Slap in the Face'

Speaking about the verdict, Rengifo's sister, Salomes Jackson, told Newsweek that her sister was killed in the same way Arya Gray was and that McGowan's sentence was "a slap in the face."

"Her [Gray's] shooter got 11.5 years but my sister being African American I guess, that's the reason why she [the judge] did this, gave him bootcamp," Rengifo's sister, Salomes Jackson told Newsweek, referring to the fact Gray was white and her sister was Black.

The whole time, McGowan and his attorney said he shot her by accident.

But Jackson and her family believe that her sister's shooting wasn't an accident, and she says that she's even got Snapchat footage and photos she believes proves it. She obtained the media through her sister's SnapChat account, which she had logged into on Jackson's phone. It includes a video that appears to be McGowan bragging about his gun before Rengifo was killed and a photo of himself after. However, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Lody Jean said that she couldn't authenticate it and the footage wasn't used in court.

"From the very beginning of the trial until the day of court, we did not get a fair trial at all," Jackson said. "We didn't get a fair shot; my sister did not get any justice. The judge basically ignored us. It felt like she was making a mockery of our family. She wanted to just wanted to see us cry and beg in court for her to just give this man bootcamp. "

McGowan had apologised to Rengifo's family in court: "I am so sorry. This is my fault," he said.

No Appeal

Jackson said it was an insincere apology and "was even more disrespectful, he should not have said anything."

She said that her family and lawyer Jasmine Rand have tried to appeal the decision, but the state attorney said that they can't appeal it because the judge sentenced McGowan the lowest sentence for the crime and he pled guilty.

"They [the court] say we can't appeal it and it breaks our heart because it feels like we failed my sister. It feels like we failed her by not even getting this guy who took him away from us. He's out. He's out with his friends in a few months."